PTR-Cheating on Mickey w/Harry!...OMG! Only a month to go!

to my Pre Trip Report! This is my first PTR ever, and Im not sure that I have much to go on, but as Ive learned from DisneyFirefly, PrincessInOz, onelilspark and TinkerBelle_325 this is a journey and I hope that you will all join me through it! Special thanks for PrincessInOz for giving me the title of my PTR.

Now one really cant blame me for wanting to cheat on Mickey with Harry. You know how it is anytime theres a kid in town, theyre always interesting and exciting. However I imagine that after all the hype and hoopla have worn off, Mickey will still take me back after my little tryst with Harry. Besides, Mickey wants my $$$'s So heres the story, its me and my DP embarking on this next trip. Here we are on our trip in January of 2010.

Some background for those of you who dont know me we are DVC members since 2007, our first DVC trip was in 2008 and I dont know how Im going to go back to staying in regular hotel rooms after DVC! Were both older and thats all Ill say on that subject , we dont have any kids, except of the fur kind. We miss them a lot when were on vacation so we dont like to be gone much longer than a week.

We both ride scooters in the parks.

DP has suffered from Rheumatoid Arthritis for over a decade so our touring style is quite laid back. In the last year shes had a hip replacement and two knee replacements. By the time our trip comes around, hopefully she will have gained some mobility. However, she will still probably need to use a scooter to get around. I broke my foot over 10 years ago and arthritis is beginning to set in. I cant walk much more than a mile before I become crippled for the next three weeks. I know because after the last Pride Parade I marched in 2008 I could barely walk for quite a few weeks afterward.

My favorite park is Epcot, I love the countries, I love all the different foods you can eat, and especially during F&W time the way you can snack around the world. In our first visit to the F&W Festival in 2009, we tried almost EVERYTHING! We made the mistake of having ADRs which didnt give us the opportunity to go back and get a second taste of the things we liked. This trip we will know better. Plus we will not have to have everything, only the new and our favorites from previous trips.

OK so here are the basic plans (as minimal as they are) sometime in late October or early November we will fly to Orlando from LAX. Well stay two nights at Universal Orlando.

And then well head over to Disney for an unspecified number of days mainly so that we can enjoy the Epcot F&W Festival, but depending on which resort(s) that we stay at plans may change. Well stay in a DVC Resort, maybe two, but thats for the next update.

OK for those of you who are late to the party and don't want to read some 20+ pages of chit chat, I've added this handy dandy link to all my actual updates. As I have more updates, I'll continue to add to these posts.

So when we go to Universal Orlando we’ll be staying at the Lowe’s Royal Pacific Hotel. Most likely we will check in on a Tuesday and check out on Thursday. We stayed at this hotel in 2008 when we made our first trip to Universal followed by our first DVC stay. It’s a nice hotel, but I haven’t stayed in a “regular” hotel room since then, only DVC. I hope that I can adjust!

We figure that we only need a day to check out the WWoHP. If we need more, we can go back the second day after we check out of the hotel. Either way, we’ll head over to Disney on the second day after our plane lands.

Then here’s the part that is still totally up in the air…we plan to go to WDW for some relaxing and F&W. At this point the only resort in Florida that we own at is Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa. While I really like the place a lot, it is not the best resort to stay at for F&W. We are hoping to become owners at two new resorts in the very near future, Beach Club Villas and the Villas at the Wilderness Lodge (My contract came through for the add on at the Villas at the Grand Californian! ). If we become owners at these two other resorts before the 11 months window to book our trip (dates still to be determined), then I will make reservations for a few days (probably a Thurs-Sun) at the VWL.

and reservations Sun – Thurs at the BCV, which will make our trip 10 days long. We may rethink that as it gets closer.

This is the optimal scenario. However, unless something really unexpected happens, at 11 months out the only place in Florida I can make reservations at is SSR.

This picture is courtesy of Stopher1 from the Balloon flight at DTD, beautiful resort!

This is by no means a bad place to stay, but for F&W I would like to be closer to Epcot. So for now the plan is to make my reservations at SSR 11 months out. If the planets align, and there are contracts available that we are able to make offers on VWL and BCV AND the contracts pass ROFR AND it happens before 7 months before our vacation, I will then switch the reservations over. That’s a lot of “ands”!

Otherwise I will call at 7 months from the dates when we are planning our vacation and try and switch the reservations over to the new resorts. Right now I’m kind of looking at this whole trip starting on October 25th at Universal, switching to Disney on Thursday the 27th and coming home on Thursday November 4th. However this is all in my mind! I have not even discussed the dates yet with DP, so we’ll see how that one goes. So far she is on board with the 2-3-4 concept. 2 nites at Universal, 3 at the VWL and 4 at the BCV.

Sounds good! We're looking at October 31 through November 9, at POR. If we get a good discount, we might be able to stay at WL We're also only doing one day at WWOHP, since that's really the only thing we're super interested in at IOA. Maybe we'll see you guys around one day

Sounds good! We're looking at October 31 through November 9, at POR. If we get a good discount, we might be able to stay at WL We're also only doing one day at WWOHP, since that's really the only thing we're super interested in at IOA. Maybe we'll see you guys around one day

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You never know, we might end up a week later. All I know is that I want to avoid weekends for F&W.

Your plans sounds great Alison. But why the 2-3-4 and not a 2-7? If you want to do F&W, then BCV would be the PRIME position to be in?

BTW - If you ever get tired of SSR, I'm more than happy to step in !

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We did a week at the BWV last year and it was a little overwhelming for an entire week of F&W, plus I would rather avoid it on the weekends. VWL would be perfect for relaxing and a change of scenery from Universal and BCV.

I'm not tired of SSR. In fact I would love to stay there for a couple days as well, but we're already gone ten days and any longer and we would be cat-home-sick.

One nice thing about managing apartments for a living is that when we have to shell out cash for repairs and upgrades, we put everything on our credit cards, and then pay them off every month so as not to get into trouble. As a result, we have so many airline miles and other kinds of points that we are lucky enough to be able to fly First Class without paying more than the $10 airport fees!

Until we have our accommodations booked, I dont want to book the airfare in case something changes. However we plan on taking our favorite non-stop American Airlines flight that leaves at 10AM Pacific Time and arrives around 4PM Eastern Time.

We usually pack our Expedition full the night before we leave, because we are both ahem a little larger than the average bear, our clothes take up more room in our suitcases. Well and we totally overpack! Normally we bring 2 large suitcases each, 2 carry ons and a scooter for each of us. We are hoping that since we rented an Owners Locker on the last trip that we will only need two of the suitcases. Besides we will have a washer and a dryer in our room (once we check in at Disney) so we wont need as many clothes.

We plan on renting an SUV at Orlando Airport because that way we can travel to the Royal Pacific Hotel via car instead of a taxi.

We have waaaaay too much stuff to fit in a taxi, we barely fit in the Expedition. Last January my parents had to hire their own transport to get to and from the airport because we would have had to strap them to the top of our car if they wanted to ride with us!

Well pick up a few essentials like soda, water, wine, snacks on our way to the RPH, but well do the bulk of our shopping on our way to our DVC Villa. We plan on eating only one TS meal a day out of the house while at the VWL and will make no TS reservations at BCV since we want to make all our meals from the small plates. Well have a few staples to cook in the room as well. Sometimes DPs RA makes it just to exhausting to go out anywhere and we wouldnt want to starve in the room in that case!

I'm green with envy! You have soooo many miles points that you can fly first class for $10???? So NOT fair!

Enjoy!

Have you considered using Garden Grocer to deliver groceries to the DVC? I've looked on line - they offer free delivery if you spend more than $40; and a lot of Dis-ers use them.

Mmm. I'm sure we've had a discussion before about NOT overpacking when going on holiday.
This is going to be an interesting journey to see if you do end up with 1 suitcase each (2 in total)......or NOT.

Have you considered using Garden Grocer to deliver groceries to the DVC? I've looked on line - they offer free delivery if you spend more than $40; and a lot of Dis-ers use them.

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We used them on our trip to F&W in Sept 09. It was very convenient and we did not want to rent a car. We stayed at the BWV so it was very convenient to get to Epcot. They brought everything we ordered, and the produce was very high quality too, but Fran really likes to go shopping. I like to pick my own things as well, however maybe it is a better idea to have it delivered, then all those little extras won't show up in the cart!

Arrival day is always a long one. We have to get up early to make our plane, and I never get to sleep before midnight the night before. I’m usually lucky if I get to sleep before 3AM, which means by the time that I get to Florida I’m ready to have dinner and crawl in bed. I’m sure we’ll make a short stop to pick up sodas & snacks and then we’ll head directly to the hotel.

I loved these little guys who line the walkway into the Loew's Royal Pacific Hotel last time we stayed.

We’re not planning anything big that day. Hopefully we’ll have dinner in our hotel at Jake’s American Bar.

We ate there last time and I remember having a fabulous bowl of Macaroni & Cheese with Keilbasa, and I think I’ll have it again if we go there. It was a huge portion and I took the leftovers home and brought it with me to Disney and reheated it in our kitchen.

I’m sure we’ll go right to bed. The next day we plan on doing IOA WWoHP.

We’re definitely going to have one of these.

When we go to

We will probably enjoy some of this:

And look at these:

I imagine that at some point I will need one of these:

Once we’ve had our fill of the Wizarding World, we’ll head back to the room, maybe go for a swim and wait until our reservation here.

I imagine we will have had our fill of Harry, but if not we will visit him Thursday before heading over to Disney Property.

However, after a recent discussion on DisneyFirefly’s PTR I’ve added an extra eatery to our itinerary.

This is how I remember them from my childhood. We would drive from Boston to my grandparents house on the Cape when my sister and I would visit every summer.

My favorite order was this.

Although my tastes have grown up a bit, so I might choose something different. But I think we’ll stop here for lunch on our way to Mickey’s house.

So this is a difficult one to talk about since I don’t have any plans that I can count on. So I guess what I will do is plan on the scenario that I WANT the most and see how that goes….which means that once we check out of the RPH we will make a stop here.

Then it is on to the VWL. I truly hope that we are able to stay here, it is such a beautiful place. Back in 1997 when it had just opened we stayed there in a Jr. Suite, it was really nice. We had a view of the boat launch and you could see all sorts of things off our balcony. I even saw an Armadillo!

If things work out we will stay here for 3 nights. I plan that we will have three ADRs, one each day Th, Fri & Sat. I’m not sure what we are thinking but these are the restaurants I am considering. They are all in the MK area, they are Artist’s Point, California Grill and Kona Café. AP and CG are only open for dinner and Kona is known for it’s breakfast. I realized that we will be there for MSNSHP so we may want to consider tickets for this as well. We have never been nor have we ever been to Mickey’s Halloween Party (CA) which I would like to go to some day. But I figure that since we plan on eating at F&W during the last half of our trip we should get in a few signatures during the first half of our Disney part.

Courtesy of leshaface here are some pics of the places we hope to go to….

Based on what I’ve read in Dining Reviews, I would like to try these two things:

Portabello Mushroom Soup

And the signature Berry Cobbler

I’m sure we could find something we would like for our main entrée!

I’d also like to eat at the California Grill at the Contemporary. We ate there on our trip in January and had an excellent meal, everything was very good, although I think I might consider ordering some sushi this next time. We split everything (both us and my parents) and it was just the right amount of food.

We had the Four Cheese Flatbread, which was awesome!

Me and my DP split the Caesar Salad, they called it Hearts of Romaine

My parents got the Malibu Roll

Everyone at the table got the Bison

And we all ordered the molten chocolate cake

Everything was excellent, but the only thing I would order on this trip again would be the molten chocolate cake and not because anything was bad, just that I would like to try other things. I think I would probably like to try the "Snake in the Grass" - Barbecue Eel with Shrimp Tempura, Avocado and Cucumber $26, or the Spicy Crab and Eel Roll - Lump Crab, Barbecue eel, tempura crunch, yuzu sauce, and asian slaw $22
(Taken from Allears.net). Both of these rolls are all cooked. DP is afraid to eat raw fish because of her autoimmune disease, RA. She takes drugs which lower her immune system. For those who don’t know, when one has RA, the immune system attacks the body instead of defending it, so the best drugs suppress the immune system. She is afraid to eat raw fish on these drugs as one never knows what could be living in the raw fish. But Eel, Crab and Shrimp Tempura are all cooked. We LOVE eel & cucumber rolls, and shrimp tempura rolls (as well as spider rolls, but they don’t have one of those). So the Shrimp Tempura and Eel Roll sounds just heavenly!

Their Oak Grilled Filet looks awesome, but it is always on the menu, and how interesting is the filet? I think we might go for something else, if we dine there but we don’t know.

The other place I want to dine at is the Kona Café. They have sushi at dinner, and other stuff that sounds good, but I’m thinking that if we go there I’d like to do breakfast, just because the other two restaurants that I want to do are dinner only. Plus we could go to the MNSSHP that night since we wouldn’t be doing a signature dining experience.

Here are some more photos courtesy of Leshaface, this is the way we would get there since we would be staying at the VWL and would take a boat….

I remember we visited the resort back in 1997 or 2001 but I don’t remember if we dined there or not…I know we had drinks. Probably why I don’t remember if we dined there! But it is a beautiful resort.

Two of their dishes that they offer that are mentioned a lot on these boards are the Tonga Toast

And the Big Kahuna

I’m not sure what we would get, I’m not a big fan of banana stuffed French Toast, but I know DP would love it. We could probably split the Big Kahuna and be full! I don’t know if she would like the Macadamia Pineapple Pancakes. I don’t think I would, but I could eat the French Toast. But the great thing is I am only speculating about what we will do or want, we can make those decisions when the time comes, over a year from now!

So those are my dining ideas for once we get to Disney. Otherwise we would plan on either eating in the room or catching a meal at a CS. Of our meals in the room, we enjoy having Bacon & Eggs with Hash Browns and Toast at least two days (perfect use of a ½ dozen eggs and 12 oz of center cut bacon). Other than that we usually have a Yogurt or a bowl of cereal for breakfast.